Sophie M Sparrow

No institutional affiliation

Unpublished Papers

What Helps Law Professors Develop as Teachers? - An Empirical Study

Sophie M. Sparrow, Franklin PierceGerald F. Hess, Gonzaga

Abstract

The overall goal of this article is to provide concrete suggestions for how law schools can improve teaching and enrich law student learning. In doing so, it reviews and analyzes the data collected from two national surveys about the kinds of faculty development activities that are most effective in improving law professors’ teaching. One survey was designed to quantify how many law teachers engaged in twenty-two types of teaching development activities over the previous five years and to assess the effectiveness of each of those activities. The other survey focused on the effectiveness of a national conference on teaching and learning in law school. This article builds upon Improving Teaching and Learning in Law School: Faculty Development Research, Principles, and Programs, 12 WIDENER L. REV. 443 (2006), which presented the principles fundamental to effective faculty development programs. This article shows how these principles apply by providing data about the effectiveness of a wide range of teaching development activities.